Local Sports

November 2, 2012

FIRTH â When a team rolls undefeated through a conference season and then finishes second in the state one would expect several post season honors to follow.
That is exactly the case with the Firth Cougar volleyball squad as they took home player of the year honors, coach of the year honors and five first team all Nuclear Conference selections for the 2012 season.
Sophomore Bailey Nelson was named the player of the year for coach of the year Carla Reeves while Ashley Sanders, Kayla Jensen, Blakely date, Jordyn Park and Taylor Nelson each were selected to the first team.

November 1, 2012

POCATELLO â Idaho State's Holt Arena has seen it's fair share of blow outs over the years and on Thursday evening another was added to the long list as the Firth Cougars mauled the Trojans of Wendell with a 70-6 2A state quarterfinal victory.
"I thought that we had a very solid game plan and the kids executed what we had planned," Firth head coach Keith Drake said.

October 31, 2012

BLACKFOOT â Well the opening round of the 2A and 3A state football tournament are in the books and as expected, Firth, Shelley and Snake River all advanced through the great eight playoffs and into the quarterfinal round.
Blackfoot won their final regular season game in the snow globe bowl with Rigby and they will kick off their playoff run on Friday. My fearless predictions were a perfect 5-0 last week, although I must confess I was hoping that Aberdeen would spoil my perfect week with a road win at Declo but alas, that was not to be. So, without further ado, my breakdown for this weeks intriguing week of playoff football.

October 28, 2012

AMMON â With a 2A state tournament volleyball title in sight the Firth Cougars took to the Hillcrest court on Saturday morning looking to complete that goal.
At the end of a very emotional day on the court, Firth came up just short of that goal as they brought home the second place trophy after losing to Nampa Christian in both the semi-final and championship games.
âIâm not going to lie, whenever you come to state without a single player who has ever been to state it can be emotionally draining,â Firth head coach Carla Reeves said. âThat was my one concern coming in and I have been pretty hard on them all season long trying to get them mentally and physically prepared. They are a strong conditioned team so they had that covered I think what got us was the emotional side of things but they never lost face out there, they never gave up.â

October 28, 2012

POCATELLO â Snake Riverâs Caleb Phillips and Pablo Vega recorded back-to-back sacks to preserve the Panthersâ 28-24 win against Sugar-Salem on Saturday in the first round of the 3A high school football playoffs.
Trailing by four, Sugar-Salem threatened a comeback facing a 3rd-and-12 at the Snake River 45 with 3:50 left in the fourth quarter at Holt Arena. Phillips dropped Sugar-Salem quarterback Teancum Gibson on third down for a 5-yard loss. And after Sugar-Salem burned its final timeout, Vega, a portly defensive lineman, tracked down a scrambling Gibson from behind, dove and knicked his heel for the fourth-down sack.
âOur defense had to come up big there to get a stop,â Snake River coach Jeff Dalley said. âWe hadnât stopped them all night. They drove the ball on us and scored. But the defense bowed their necks and came up with a stop.â

October 28, 2012

POCATELLO â Dominant. That is the word that best describes the performance that the Shelley Russet football squad had on Saturday evening against a woefully overmatched Buhl opponent in their 60-7 opening round win over the Indians.
"We're a pretty aggressive football team and it paid off tonight," Shelley head coach Travis Hobson said. "Honestly on film Buhl looked real good so we were able to show the kids some film and show them some good things that they could do now as coaches we saw some things that we thought that we could exploit. I thought that Buhl was aggressive to a point where we could screen and I didn't think that they could cover our deep ball and in their cover three I felt that we could hit them up the sea

October 27, 2012

RIGBY â The Blackfoot Broncos closed out their regular season with a 41-6 road win at a snowy Rigby High School on Friday night.
Playing in a heavy snowfall all evening long the Broncos built a 28 point halftime advantage and then coasted, or sledded home to finish the regular season at 8-1.
Blackfoot got on the board on just the second play from scrimmage when Alonzo Ramos hit a streaking Matt Peterson in the middle of the field for a 60 yard touchdown strike.
âItâs hard to come out and play in these conditions but you just have to fight off the cold and try hard to focus and execute as best as possible,â Ramos said. âItâs really hard to pass the ball on a night like tonight.â

October 26, 2012

POCATELLO â The Firth Cougars opened their 2012 2A state football playoffs on Thursday evening in Holt Arena where they scored early and they scored often in a 63-14 landslide victory over the Vikings of Valley.
It was a game of big plays for the Cougars as they scored 7 touchdowns which were longer than 20 yards including a 5 touchdown evening from 2A player of the year candidate Mitch Orme.